Emblems of Power in Palaiologan Constantinople

When the Spanish traveler Pero Tafur met John VIII in Constantinople in the 1430s, they discussed heraldry. Tafur claimed relationship with the imperial family, and thus noted that his family’s “true arms are checky (jaqueles).” He enquired why the emperor did not wear those arms, as was formerly the custom, and was told that the emperor who had reconquered Constantinople from the Venetians … could never be prevailed upon to relinquish the arms which he formerly bore, which were and are two links joined (eslavones asidos unos con otros), and to assume the imperial arms, which belong to the throne. But he replied always that he had won the empire bearing those arms, and nothing would induce him to part with them, and so it is to this day. Nevertheless the old arms, which were checky, can still be seen on the towers and buildings and the churches of the city. (Pero Tafur: Travels and Adventures (1435-39), trans. and ed. M. Letts (London, 1926), ch. 14) What are meant by the “checky” device and the two links joined? In this paper, I will explore the identification and specific meaning of the emblems of power and prestige discussed above. As I shall argue, these devices appear on the coinage, garments, and architecture of the late Byzantine elite, and they may be related to similar symbolic systems employed in Western Europe and in the Seljuk and Mamluk states.

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